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What A Wonderful Word

What A Wonderful Word has captured my heart, it identifies and explains words that are untranslatable into English. Before you give me a bewildered stare- let me explain...

In a nutshell- in some languages there are words that simply don’t translate into English. Perhaps because many of these words are tied to a specific way of life which are unique to the country of origin or are not directly experienced in the everyday English-speaking world.

For example, take “gokotta” a Swedish word which essentially means “to wake up early in the morning so you can go outside to hear the first birds singing.” Or “gluggavedur,” an Icelandic world that means “weather that looks so beautiful while you’re inside, but it is much too cold when you step outside.”

These are just two examples from this enlightening book. Each page is accompanied by beautiful illustrations and some cultural context about how the word is used in its native language. A testimony to how beautiful language can be, and that it always has the ability to surprise and teach us new things about ourselves and our world.